Team India got knocked out of the ICC T20 World Cup after a thumping 10-wicket defeat against England in the semi-final at Adelaide. Former Indian bowler Anil Kumble has suggested that the balance of the Indian team was not ideal in the tournament.
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It is very exciting that Yuvendra Chahal did not play a single game in the tournament for the Indian team. Team India preferred R Ashwin over Chahal as Ashwin gave them a batting option at number 8. Axar Patel played as number 7 for the team, but he could not deliver with both bat and the ball.
Many people demanded that Ashwin could have played at number 7 and Chahal could have played in place of Axar Patel. However, Indian management decided against the same. Harshal Patel was one such player in the team who could contribute with both bat and the ball, but his death bowling was a thing of concern.
Going forward, the Indian team have options of Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur, but both of them cannot play together due to their similar attributes. It will be interesting to see the Indian composition after the T20 World Cup. There are players like Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Rishi Dhawan, etc who can bring balance.
Anil Kumble points at lack of all-rounders in the Indian team
Former Indian captain and coach Anil Kumble has pointed out the lack of all-round options in the Indian team for their defeat against England in the T20 World Cup semi-final. Kumble said that the batters in the top order should bowl a bit in order to win some games for the team.
When India won the 2011 World Cup, Team India had options of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, etc. All these players could bat in the top order, whereas their bowling gave India an edge over the other opposition in the tournament.
“What I see as something that certainly needs to be done is, how we keep talking about bowlers’ need to bat. But I think in Indian cricket, you need batters to bowl too for the balance of the team,” Kumble was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.com.
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Liam Livingstone bowled three overs for England against India, where he conceded just 21 runs and kept the Indian batters under control. Kumble pointed out that Moeen Ali did not bowl much in the tournament, and they could use Livingstone based on the batters of the opponent teams.
“That’s exactly what England have. They had too many choices. They used Liam Livingstone. Moeen Ali has hardly bowled in this tournament. So those are the choices that you need.” Kumble added.
